Author Archives: Guest Post

Climate Change Threatens Giant Pandas’ Bamboo Buffet–and Survival

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environment, Nature21st century, affect, bamboo, bamboo famine, changing climate, chinese academy, climate change, climate projection, common species, conservation resource, field data, food supply, forest floors, historic data, human habitation, jianguo jack liu, julie winkler, mao ning tuanmu, meal source, michigan state university, mountain range, msu, natural bridge, northwestern china, optimistic scenarios, panda habitat, ploughshare tortoise, qinling mountains, sciences, scientists, shaanxi province, weihua xu, wild population, yu li, zhiyun ouyang

China’s endangered wild pandas may need new dinner reservations–and quickly, based on models that indicate climate change may kill off swaths of bamboo that pandas need to survive

In this week’s Nature Climate Change, an international journal, scientists from Michigan State University (MSU) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences provide comprehensive forecasts of how changing climate may affect the most common species of bamboo that carpet the forest floors of prime panda habitat in northwestern China. Even the most optimistic scenarios show that bamboo die-offs would effectively cause prime panda habitat to become inhospitable by the end of the 21st century.

The scientists studied possible scenarios of climate change in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province. At the northern boundary of China’s panda distributional range, the Qinling Mountains are home to about 275 wild pandas, which account for about 17 percent of the remaining wild population. The Qinling pandas, which have been isolated because of thousands of years of human habitation around the mountain range, vary genetically from other giant pandas. The geographic isolation of these pandas makes them particularly valuable for conservation, but vulnerable to climate change. (more…)

Degraded Military Lands To Get Ecological Boost From CU-led Effort

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environmentamerican west, arid ecosystem, arid land, atmospheric dust, bacteria, biocrusts, biological soil crust, boulder, central america, China, colorado, cyanobacteria, degraded, desert environment, dugway proving ground, erosion, extreme environment, ferran garcia pichel, fort bliss, fungi, general george patton, hawaii, inoculation, jayne belnap, lichens, metropolitan area, michael duniway, microbial communities, military activity, military exercises, military installation, military vehicles, modeling, mojave desert, mosses, new mexico, nichole barger, northwest utah, pollutant, polyacrylamide, probability, restore, sasha reed, soil erosion, soil fertility, soil surface, South Africa, south america, survival, texas, university, water retention, word war

Some arid lands in the American West degraded by military exercises that date back to General George Patton’s Word War II maneuvers in the Mojave Desert should get a boost from an innovative research project led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Headed up by CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Nichole Barger, the research team is focused on developing methods to restore biological soil crusts — microbial communities primarily concentrated on soil surfaces critical to decreasing erosion and increasing water retention and soil fertility. Such biological soil crusts, known as “biocrusts,” can cover up to 70 percent of the ground in some arid ecosystems and are dominated by cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi and bacteria, she said. (more…)

Want Better Employees? Get Somebody Else To Rate Their Personalities, Suggests New Study.

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Economyassessment, business, co worker, current employees, evaluation tool, job, maastricht university, michael scott, performance, personality test, phenomenon, potential, predictive, self rated, the office, toronto, university, ute huelsheger

TORONTO, ON – Businesses will get more accurate assessments of potential and current employees if they do away with self-rated personality tests and ask those being assessed to find someone else to rate them, suggest results from a new study.

Previous job performance studies have shown that outsiders are best at rating an individual’s personality in terms of how they work on the job. But observers in these studies have always been co-workers. (more…)

Researchers Report Potential New Treatment to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer, amyloid beta, blood brain barrier, brain, brain pathology, cell, clr01, disease, disorders, gal bitan, inhibitor, mammalian animal model, memory, molecular compound, molecular tweezer, mouse model, neuron, parkinsons disease, pathologic feature, process specific, radioactive label, tau, toxic protein, ucla

Molecular ‘tweezers’ break up toxic aggregations of proteins in mouse model

Last March, researchers at UCLA reported the development of a molecular compound called CLR01 that prevented toxic proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease from binding together and killing the brain’s neurons.

Building on those findings, they have now turned their attention to Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be caused by a similar toxic aggregation or clumping, but with different proteins, especially amyloid-beta and tau. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Applies U.S. Tools and Technologies to Spur Low-Carbon Cities in China

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environmentbenchmark, carbon dioxide, carbon emission, central government, China, china energy group, china today, chinese cities, chongqing, eco city, energy foundation, Environment, green, indicator, industrial activity, intensity, low carbon, low-carbon city, modern urbanites, nan zhou, ndrc, new energy city, province, reduce emission, renewable technology, san francisco, shanghai, urban environment

When eight cities and five provinces in China were asked by the central government to develop a plan to become “low carbon,” many had no idea what to do. Some planted trees. Others decided to build up a solar panel industry. One city even thought about building a lake to be more “green.” Local government leaders were at a loss as to how to reduce their carbon emissions.

In 2008, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a joint effort to address energy and environmental challenges facing urban centers in both countries. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s China Energy Group was tasked by DOE to identify and recommend best practices, tools and technologies. With nearly 25 years experience analyzing energy use in China, the China Energy Group has tailored a variety of resources to help local Chinese officials turn government mandates into practical how-to guides for understanding their energy usage and reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)

USGS Study Tracks Pacific Walrus, Observes Effects of Arctic Sea Ice Loss on Behavior

By Guest PostNovember 15, 2012Environment, NatureArctic, Arctic sea ice, behavioral change, chukchi sea, ecosystems, feeding grounds, female walrus, gas, geoffrey haskett, hanna shoal region, iconic arctic species, lease blocks, marcia mcnutt, marine mammals, melting, mortality, northern, oil, pacific walruses, polar bears, russian scientists, s a sonsthagen, sea ice, summer, trampling, U.S. Geological Survey, walrus population

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Sparse summer sea ice in the Arctic over the past five years has caused behavioral changes in Pacific walruses according to research published by U.S. Geological Survey and Russian scientists. The effects on the walrus population are unknown.

“The loss of sea ice is the ‘why’ for the change in walrus behavior; the tracking data tells us the ‘where’ in terms of their new forage patterns,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “What awaits to be seen is ‘how much will it matter?'” (more…)

IBM Makes $4 Billion in Financing Available for Business Partners; Announces New Mobile App to Speed Access to Credit within Minutes

By Guest PostNovember 15, 2012Technologyanalytics, android mobile device, bishop company, business challenge, business partners, China, client, cloud, credit qualified, global financing, gracious home, ibm, ibm study, ipad, iPhone, mark hennessy, new york, oxford, puresystems, retailer, united states, university, vai analytics system, zobrist consulting

Extends Financing to Help Businesses Drive Growth with Advanced Technologies: Cloud, Business Analytics and PureSystems

ARMONK, N.Y. – 15 Nov 2012: IBM announced today it is providing IBM Business Partners worldwide with $4 billion in financing for credit-qualified clients over a period of 12 months. This financing, through IBM Global Financing, can make obtaining credit easier and more accessible to enable IBM’s global partner ecosystem and their clients to acquire advanced technologies such as cloud, analytics and PureSystems. As part of today’s news, IBM is also launching a new mobile app as another step to simplify the way IBM’s Business Partners can apply for and secure financing for their clients within minutes via any mobile device — anytime, anywhere.

With 10 billion mobile devices forecasted by 2020, the proliferation of mobile technology is fundamentally changing the way people think, work, act, and interact.¹ Already, 90 percent of mobile users keep their device within arm’s reach at all times, and complete many kinds of transactions across these smart devices. ²The new mobile app from IBM Global Financing is designed to address this changing business environment by making it easier for IBM Business Partners to provide their clients with price proposals and generate credit approvals within minutes using an iPad, iPhone or Android mobile device. The mobile app will be available in the United States this month and will be rolled out globally beginning in China in January 2013. The app has an easy-to-use interface and is designed for contracts worth up to $500K, all while the IBM Business Partner seller is on the go. This mobile app is based on IBM Global Financing’s simple Rapid Online Financing tool, designed for non-financing experts, where available, to generate fast approvals for credit applications with a simple click of the mouse. (more…)

New Global Subsidy that Provides Access to Most Effective Malaria Drugs Shows Promise

By Guest PostNovember 15, 2012Healthacts, african children, african countries, african nations, amfm program, anti malaria medications, anti-malarial drugs, artemisinin combination therapies, buying time, claire panosian dunavan, disease, geneva, ghana, global fund, Kenya, key, Madagascar, malaria, malaria case, niger, nigeria, physician, qaacts, saving lives, Tanzania, the lancet, ucla, uganda, Zanzibar

UCLA infectious diseases doctor played key role in finance strategy for therapy

A new international program, conceived in part by a UCLA physician, has rapidly transformed access to lifesaving anti-malarial drugs by providing cheap, subsidized artemisinin-based combination therapies in seven African countries that account for a quarter of the world’s malaria cases.

The first independent evaluation of the Affordable Medicines Facility–malaria (AMFm) program was recently published in the journal The Lancet. The program is based at the Global Fund in Geneva, an international financing institution dedicated to disbursing funds to prevent and treat infectious diseases. The evaluation shows that the program improved access to key artemisinin combination therapies, or ACTs, which offer broader protection and less antibiotic resistance than anti-malaria medications currently available in those African nations. (more…)